The Alpha Emerges

9:00 am—One of the big buzz movie this year is the closing night film, Alpha Dog. I rolled out of bed early to see a press screening, rather than deal with everyone in Park City who seems to be clamoring for one of the sold-out tickets. Honestly, my expectations are low for the film because, quite frankly, I’m not a fan of writer/director Nick Cassavetes. As it turns out, I am really surprised by the film. Inspired by the true story of Jesse James Hollywood, the youngest man to ever make the FBI’s Most Wanted List, Alpha Dog stars Emile Hirsch as Johnny Truelove, a teen from the suburbs living the gangsta life style of a dope dealer. When one of his running mates comes up short with the cash he owes, Johnny decides to take action. Along with the rest of his crew of wannabe thugz and hustlaz, Johnny kidnaps the younger brother of Jake (Ben Foster), a drug addled, neo-Nazi Jew, which leads to an unending string of bad decisions, punctuated by tragedy.

Over the years many films have aspired to be the next Goodfellas. None have ever achieved that goal, with most falling way short of the intended goal. Alpha Dog, while never reaching the heights of Goodfellas, comes much closer than most of the other aspirants that have come along over the years. Cassavetes solid script and assured direction build the foundation for a film that should join the ranks of such teens-gone-wild crime dramas as Menace II Society.

Much of the advance buzz surround Alpha Dog has centered on boy-toy pop singer Justin Timberlake, who co-stars as Frankie, one of Johnny’s best friends. Timberlake deserves all the praise, as his performance proves to be the film’s strongest. Hirsch, who over-acted to laughable measure in Lords of Dogtown plays things a bit too low key, and Foster, while giving a great performance, is so over-the-top and chews each scene like a starving wolverine in a feeding frenzy, that it almost seems like he should be in a different movie. Timberlake gives the film’s most balance performance, serves as the broken moral compass for all the other characters, and comes out being the most interesting and complex character in the film.

Alpha Dog is not the best film, and ultimately is does not strike me as the sort of film in need of the marketing push that will come from playing at Sundance. But it is a good